The Fall of Benning
by kunai is a shinobis bestfriend
Summary: The tale of the last days of Corporal Chuck Casey and the fall of Benning.


**The Fall of Benning**

Disclaimer:I do not own Mass Effect. The only thing that is mine is the OC, which i will happily trade for Mass Effect Bioware...its a good deal! I swear!

Long time no see everyone! I hope you enjoy this fic!

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 **Milky Way, Arcturus Stream, Euler System, Benning, Outskirts of the Capital City Joughin**

 **January 5, 2186 10:30am local time**

-==[X.X]==-

 _ **All call signs! All call signs! This is Paladin 3-1, Firebase Ghost is overrun and Joughin has fallen. I repeat Firebase Ghost is overrun! Do not enter Joughin!**_

-==[X.X]==-

N7 Paladin Corporal Chuck Casey was pretty sure he was the last human being alive on the planet that once housed 2.25 million. Originally the Reapers had come to Benning with a small force to destroy its comm buoys and space docks. And then like a shadow, the Reapers slowly extinguished life on the planet with a horde that dwarfed anything the planets defense forces had seen before. The planetary defense fleet had been cut down with ease, like a scythe through wheat, and when the enemy made landfall they did so in the hundreds of thousands.

Benning wasn't an overly developed garden world. The colony planet was founded in 2153 and had only been operating for thirty three years. Despite this, Benning was an important planet to the Systems Alliance being as it was the primary source of food and an important staging area for starship maintenance and repair for the nearby Arcturus Station, house of the Systems Alliance parliament and the nerve center of the military armada. Because of its close proximity to Arcturus Station, the planetary defense fleet stationed over Benning was smaller than what you would you would find at other colonies. The ground forces stationed on planet was likewise small, a few regiments of regular infantry, a few companies of heavy infantry, a mechanized infantry unit, and a couple of N7 Special Operations teams.

He was from the latter; he was an elite warrior, the N7 Paladin Sentinel, a super solider with a shield. The mix and matched unit that he was currently with was tasked with holding a residential city block in a slum on the outskirts of Joughin, designated Firebase Ghost. Firebase Ghost was the closest to the abandoned hidden base that housed the Quantum Entanglement Device, their "line to the outside world". The firebase's defenders held out for four weeks before retreating into the woods outside the outpost when The Reapers dropped one of the last semi intact spaceports onto the city, wiping out the last of the city's defenders. By then there had only been ten of them left. The Reapers hunted them through the woods, using sheer numbers like the space zombies you see in the vids. One by one Casey's comrades had been killed.

He was the last. He now had one last mission. He needed to get to the Q.E.D and get the word out to the brass that Benning was lost and then he had to destroy the Q.E.D so that The Reapers would not be able to capture it.

He was a dead man, it was a forgone conclusion, he'd died the moment The Reapers jumped into the system. "Good thing I'm already an N7" He thought to himself with a smile. "There's no way I'm going to survive this in an admirable and effective fashion." With that in mind Casey steeled himself and doubled his pace. Dead men have nothing to lose. The least a dead man can do is to take a few of his enemies with him.

It had been two days since Private Ruivivar Shujumi was completely torn limb from limb by the husks and cannibals. It had been two days since N7 Paladin Corporal Chuck Casey began his final mission. It had been two days of nonstop running, of foraging whatever little food and water on the go. It has been two days since Casey started his personal asymmetrical war, and those two days have taken its toll. But he was close, so very close.

"Dead men feel no pain." He told himself, pushing past the pain from his exhausted legs, his burning lungs, and his broken rib courtesy of a lucky husk. The Paladin growled and charged toward his goal, he had finally made it base,

"Dead men feel no—" **SNAP SNAP SNAP THUMP THUMP THUMP** he staggered and double-over "—pain!" The shots were from behind, far away. He was hit three times, the armor stopped one but the other two rounds lodge above his right kidney. Not good, not good at all. Corporal Casey picks himself up and stumbles past the threshold of the small abandoned base; the doors automatically lock themselves he thinks to himself, "time's running out, no time for medi-gel."

The Q.E.D flickers on, Casey with his Omni-tool hits the emergency broadcast and sends out all of the new Intel he and others on Benning were able to gather on the reaper forces and within a few minutes the faces appear, some he recognizes others he doesn't, he greets them with a crisp salute despite his injuries. With a quick glance Admiral Hackett returning the salute asks, "Who, where, and what?"

Grimacing Casey replied, "Sir! Corporal Chuck Casey, I'm on Benning, Reapers dropped a spaceport on Joughin, I'm the last one standing, and The Reapers are closing in on me."

Admiral Hackett looking to his side asks, "Shepard, how long till—"

"No need sir, I'm shot to shit and bleeding out, I'll be long gone before EVAC could get here, the living don't need to worry about the dead," Casey cutting the admiral off, then glancing at the Spectre, "Commander, you got a long road ahead of ya, stand tall and do the job right, we'll all be rooting for ya on the other side."

An ominous horn pierced the air. Casey temporarily paused in his sabotage while the others looked on and he glanced up towards the direction the unholy sound originated and chuckled to his audience, "I guess I should be flattered they sent an actual Reaper to do me in..."

The building erupted. Brick tore apart and ash filled the air. Concrete debris from the second floor crashed into the first, colliding with the collapsed walls.

The rubble settled. Smoke and silence filled the air.

-==[X.X]==-

I dig myself out of what was once the second floor, ears ringing I think to myself, "Lucky I had my helmet on; bloody Reaper couldn't even get the job done..." Smiling as I propped myself against some of the rubble and removed my busted helmet, blood pooling in my mouth and dribbling on to my chest plate, "Well that's not good," I think to myself, "broken ribs probably nicked or punctured a lung..."

My breath slowly bubbles as I breathe out, I look down at the N7 on my chest and the blood stripe on my right shoulder pauldron, "Sacrifice, my sacrifice." I whispered

I can hear them coming now, I pull the M77 Paladin pistol off my hip mag-holster and switch the safety off, from what it sounds like it's a marauder and a couple of husks, "So I might end up like Shujumi, poor bastard," I mused "can't tell who drew the short straw, me or the poor bastards that are about to tear me a new one."

My finger glides over the trigger, "I could always take the easy way out..." I think to myself, "...nahh somebody gotta put these assholes out of their misery, might as well be me." I bring my pistol up as I hear footsteps. They're harsh and foreboding. They carry with them rage and blind hatred. They carry with them death.

A husk explodes from the tree line about ten feet in front of me and I squeeze the trigger. Then another. Then another. Three husks down in a matter of seconds, training had taken over. The future now seemed a little brighter, as if death herself approved, as if she whispered in my ear that it will be okay. I saw her smile welcoming me with open arms. And then I ducked. I heard the shots slam right above my head, felt a sting of the debris, I lined my sights and squeezed until my mag ran dry, I forgot about the last marauder, Marauder Shields.

I fall over.

 _ **"Quack Quack Motherfucker..."**_


End file.
